The Armament of Eden
by Emmaline Milne
Summary: Angel has just begun anew when he meets Buffy Summers and the two are hurled into a dangerous, death defying mission as they meet their destiny. Duh-Duh-Duuun! AU, WARNING: Religious Blasphemy. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

PART ONE

_**The Old Testament: Genesis**_

_**1:1**__ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth._

_**1:2**__ And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon_

_the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the_

_waters. _

_**1:3**__ And God said, "Let there be light: and there was light."_

_**1:4**__ And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light_

_from the darkness._

_**1:5**__ And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night._

_And the evening and the morning were the first day._

_**1:6**__ And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,_

_and let it divide the waters from the waters._

_**1:7**__ And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were_

_under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament:_

_and it was so._

_**1:8**__ And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the_

_morning were the second day._

_**1:9**__ And God said, __"__Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together_

_unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.__"_

_**1:10**__ And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of_

_the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good._

_**1:11**__ And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding_

_seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is_

_in itself, upon the earth: and it was so._

_**1:12**__ And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after_

_his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after_

_his kind: and God saw that it was good._

_**1:13**__ And the evening and the morning were the third day._

_**1:14**__ And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven_

_to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for_

_seasons, and for days, and years: _

_**1:15**__ And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give_

_light upon the earth: and it was so._

_**1:16**__ And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day,_

_and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also._

_**1:17**__ And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light_

_upon the earth, _

_1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and_

_to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good._

_**1:19**__ And the evening and the morning were the fourth day._

_**1:20**__ And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving_

_creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the_

_open firmament of heaven._

_**1:21**__ And God created great whales, and every living creature that_

_moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind,_

_and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good._

_**1:22**__ And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill_

_the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth._

_**1:23**__ And the evening and the morning were the fifth day._

_**1:24**__ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after_

_his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his_

_kind: and it was so._

_**1:25**__ And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle_

_after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after_

_his kind: and God saw that it was good._

_**1:26**__ And God said, __"__Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:_

_and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl_

_of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over_

_every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.__"_

_**1:27**__ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created_

_he him; male and female created he them._

_**1:28**__ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful, and_

_multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion_

_over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every_

_living thing that moveth upon the earth."_

_**1:29**__ And God said, __"__Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,_

_which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which_

_is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.__"_

_**1:30**__ And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air,_

_and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is_

_life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so._

_**1:31**__ And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was_

_very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day._

_**2:1**__ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of_

_them._

_**2:2**__ And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and_

_he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made._

_**2:3**__ And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that_

_in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made._

_**2:4**__ These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when_

_they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the_

_heavens, _

_2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth,_

_and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not_

_caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the_

_ground._

_**2:6**__ But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole_

_face of the ground._

_**2:7**__ And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and_

_breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living_

_soul._

_**2:8**__ And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he_

_put the man whom he had formed._

_**2:9**__ And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is_

_pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the_

_midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil._

_**2:10**__ And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence_

_it was parted, and became into three heads._

_**2:11**__ And the rivers grew and shaped to become divine counsellors, with who those chosen by The Lord could seek holy advice_

_**2:12**__ The name of the first was Pison: and she compasseth the_

_whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; _

_**2:13**__ And the name of the second was Gihon: the same is it that_

_compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia._

_**2:14**__ And the name of the third was Hiddekel: that is it which_

_goeth toward the east of Assyria. _

_**2:15**__ And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of_

_Eden to dress it and to keep it._

_**2:16**__ And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the_

_garden thou mayest freely eat: _

_**2:17**__ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat _

_of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die._

_**2:18**__ And the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be_

_alone; I will make him animals."_

_**2:19**__ And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the_

_field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see_

_what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living_

_creature, that was the name thereof._

_**2:20**__ And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air,_

_and to every beast of the field; but for Adam he lacked company._

_**2:21**__ And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and as he_

_slept: he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead_

_thereof; _

_**2:22**__ And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made_

_he a woman, and brought her unto the man._

_**2:23**__ And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my_

_flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."_

_**2:24**__ Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall_

_cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh._

_**2:25**__ And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not_

_ashamed._

_**3:1**__ Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which_

_the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said,_

_Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? _

_**3:2**__ And the woman said unto the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the _

_trees of the garden:_

_**3:3**__ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden,_

_God hath said, "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest_

_ye die."_

_**3:4**__ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: _

_**3:5**__ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall_

_be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil._

_**3:6**__ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that_

_it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one_

_wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto_

_her husband with her; and he did eat._

_**3:7**__ And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they_

_were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves_

_aprons._

_**3:8**__ And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in_

_the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the_

_presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden._

_**3:9**__ And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, "Where art_

_thou?" _

_**3:10**__ And he said, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was_

_afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."_

_**3:11**__ And he said, "Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten_

_of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?"_

_**3:12**__ And the man said, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she_

_gave me of the tree, and I did eat."_

_**3:13**__ And the LORD God said unto the woman, "What is this that thou hast_

_Done?" And the woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."_

_**3:14**__ And the LORD God said unto the serpent, "Because thou hast done_

_this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the_

_field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the_

_days of thy life: _

_**3:15**__ And I will put enmity between thee and the_

_woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head,_

_and thou shalt bruise his heel._

_**3:16**__ Unto the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and_

_thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy_

_desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."_

_**3:17**__ And unto Adam he said, "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice_

_of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee,_

_saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake;_

_in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;" _

_**3:18**__ "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the_

_herb of the field;" _

_**3:19**__ "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return_

_unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: fordust thou art, and _

_unto dust shalt thou return."_

_**3:20**__ And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother_

_of all living._

_**3:21**__ Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of_

_skins, and clothed them._

_**3:22**__ And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to_

_know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also_

_of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: _

_**3:23**__ Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of _

_Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken._

_**3:24**__ So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden_

_of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep_

_the way of the tree of life._

_**4:1**__ And unbenkownst to the LORD God, Adam knew of Eve his wife; _

_and as she ate of the tree of life, so too, did the child in her belly and _

_he was made evil as the serpent. _

_**4:2**__ And the child was born and called Cain. And she again bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain _

_was a tiller of the ground._

_**4:3**__ And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the_

_fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD._

_**4:4**__ And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of_

_the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his_

_offering: _

_**4:5**__ But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect._

_And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell._

_**4:6**__ And the LORD said unto Cain, "Why art thou wroth? and why is thy_

_countenance fallen? _

_**4:7**__ "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest _

_not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and _

_thou shalt rule over him."_

_**4:8**__ And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when_

_they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother,_

_and in vain, tried to slay him. And Abel saw his brothers evil and ran _

_from him._

_**4:9**__ And the LORD said unto Cain, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy evil_

_crieth unto me from your soul."_

_**4:11**__ "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her_

_mouth to receive thy traitor from a land which is neither a hell nor _

_paradise into an unknown realm;" _

_**4:12 **__When thou tillest the ground of thy banished realm, it shall not _

_henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond _

_shalt thou be and no more in the earth. And the LORD God made_

_Nascostas, a place of dark misfortune where ill deeds went by _

_unnoticed and banished Cain and all of his blood to it."_

_**4:13**__ And Cain said unto the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can_

_bear."_

_**4:14**__ And the LORD set a great a terrible mark upon Cain, lest any finding _

_him should know of his nature and his deed._

_**4:15**__ And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the_

_land of Nascostas._

_**4: 16**__ Abel was troubled by this and he asked the LORD, "Where is my _

_brother?"And The LORD God replied. "Am I your brother's keeper? I know _

_not where he resides." _

_**4:17**__ Abel felt the lie is the LORD God's words. He looked around him _

_and gazed at the Garden of Eden and found he had lost his taste for its _

_beauty. "This paradise is nothing to me now I know the sins of its little _

_history." _

_**4:18**__ "This world is my own making," the LORD God replied, "and I have _

_made it so evil thought and deed be done, so that I may know who is _

_righteous in their heart and who is wicked."_

_**4:19**__ But Abel had seen the truth of his paradise and lived in misery. And so, the LORD God created a holy realm where neither wicked_

_thought or deed be done and named this Navistos, and Abel and all _

_of his blood remained there._

_**4:20 **__And in the land of Nascostas, Cain knew of his wife; and she _

_conceived, and bore Enoch: and he builded a place of dark worship, _

_in the heart of Nascostas and called the name of the monstrosity, _

_after himself._

_**4:21**__ And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and_

_Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. And all _

_bore hearts blacker than the last._

_**4:22**__ And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah,_

_and the name of the other Zillah._

_**4:23**__ And Lamech said unto his wives, "Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice;_

_ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to_

_my wounding, and a young man to my hurt."_

_**4:24**__ "If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and_

_sevenfold."_

_**4:25**__ And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his_

_own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth: _

_**4:26**__ And so The Lord said to Abel; "I have given to your mother_

_two sons and taken two away. I have given her immeasurable _

_grief and I will redeem myself for it."_

_**4:27**__ And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty _

_years: and then he died._

_**5:1 **__In time, though Abel was greatly pleased with Navistos, _

_he began to worry for his brother in Nascostas. The LORD God _

_was unmoved and ascertained that sinners remain in Nascostas._

_**5:2**__ Abel was deeply troubled. "I fear your judgement is ill-placed _

_and will have a grim cost." The Lord was disturbed by Abel's _

_warning and though he tried to put his misdeeds out of mind, _

_his abandonment of Cain haunted him._

_**5:3**__ And so the LORD God went to him in Nascostas._

_Cain thought his exile was at an end but when The LORD_

_rose to leave Cain in Nascostas, he was thrown into a fury _

_The LORD did not survive. And God was destroyed. _

_**5:4**__ Abel felt The Lords passing and was broken by it. _

_The people of Navistos mourned for seven centuries. _

_**5:5**__In this time, Eve passed and Seth became a man. _

_He married and his wife was blessed with many sons and daughters. _

_Seth grew older, as his brothers never had and though he did not know _

_them, he resented them for it._

_**5:6**__ And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years:_

_and he began to die. Immortality called to him and he became sick _

_with the want of it._

_**5:7**__ And Seth feared death above all else and called out to his brother _

_Abel, "My brother who art in Navistos, grant me immortality, of the_

_strength you possess so that I might live forever."_ _**5:8**__ Abel denied him. "Dear Brother, those on earth were born _

_for death. Do not test the laws of your land." _

_**5:9**__ And so Seth called to Cain for help, though he knew he was _

_wicked. "Dear Brother, will you let me pass? My elder would _

_and I fear you too, will allow it." _

_**5:10**__ And Cain replied, "If ye shall be emissary, my eyes and ears_

_and able body on earth." Seth promised himself to Cain. "You have all of this if I have my _

_immortality." _

_**5:11**__ Dark majicks were used. Seth was deformed and tiny rips _

_began in the realm of man. None but The Lord were meant to _

_have presence in all three and though Cain could never return _

_to Earth, his evil began to worm its way back in. _

_**5:12**__ The third brother that was never meant to be would live _

_forever, however cruel and however far he went against nature. _

_**5:13**__ Immortality was never meant for this universe and the _

_very moment the Nascostas permeated the world of man, the _

_barriers began to dissolve. _

_**5: 14**__ And deep in Nascostas, Cain and his children resided. _

_In time those hearts were twisted and great evil manifested _

_there until all Nascostians were wicked as Cain himself. _

_No longer human but beneath animals they came to be as _

_withered and blackened as the hearts they possessed. _

_**5: 15**__ God lay dead. The paradise he had first created was stained _

_with sin and deceit. His second was ruled by filthy _

_imitations of man, black hearts barely intact and his third _

_mourned for his loss and the loss of their last hope for redemption. The time of unguided man had begun._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter I

In many ways, it was like any other day - at least in the beginning.

For a long time, Buffy Summers had begun every day identical to the last. Neat, tidy and organised she woke every morning at exactly seven-thirty, showered, dressed in the pre-prepared outfit she had laid out the night before and ate a piece of buttered toast. Every morning she habitually and consistently avoided the mirror. She preferred to tie her long blonde hair in an unruly braid and after five years or more of doing so; the chances were quite against her being able to tell you what she looked like with her hair down.

Her reasons for avoiding the mirror so adamantly would have been lost to an outside observer. Buffy was by no means the most beautiful woman to have ever lived, but nor was she unattractive. It was, in fact, something she didn't often like to think about but the truth was that like most other things in her simple existence, she found her utter lack of extraordinariness utterly intolerable.

In a way, her insecurities had firm roots in reality, unlike many. True, her grades were better than most and several of her report cards put her classmates to shame but this was more because of a tendency to focus and work hard than natural ability or intelligence. She had blonde hair and green eyes, and a lean build. She was honest, quiet and polite; things which were undoubtedly wonderful traits, particularly had one possessed them from a young age as Buffy had, but all had gradually burrowed her in the background, where she now found herself unable to escape.

Buffy had led a relatively normal childhood, as childhoods went. She had been marginally more mature than the other children and easily bored with their foolish games. Throughout primary school, she was often found tucked in a quiet corner of the school library, where she would read of people far more interesting, she considered, than those around her.

Her parents, while neither negligent nor abusive, nevertheless regarded her with rather polite indifference and cool ignorance. From the time she had learnt to speak with coherency they had treated her as another adult, a neighbour whom while they held no dispute with, remained unfamiliar. She had very few natural talents; she excelled at most everything she did however and although her aptitude for commitment had garnered her much praise, she had always been rather bored with the whole short, she was desperate for a defining quality and always had been. Had she one day developed a hideous birthmark in the centre of her forehead; she probably would have been delighted.

Her parents, upright, hardworking citizens seemed as enthusiastic about blending into the crowd as Buffy was about standing out.

There were a few things, as there are with everyone, that were just slightly unusual. As mundane as they must have seemed to others, Buffy treasured them. They were, in order of importance to her, her incredibly unusual dreams (none of which held even the slightest hint of reality) an affinity with books that she herself could not explain and an ability to play piano like no-one else she knew.

At eight o'clock exactly, she was picked up by Riley Finn. She gave a cursory nod to her mother and father who would be eating breakfast in the dining room by then and hurried out the front door to Finn's car. She would meet her boyfriend of almost two years with a perfunctory kiss on the cheek, he would open the door and they would proceed to the majority silence of the forty minutes it took to get to their school. They would arrive with ten minutes to spare, join their small group of friends at a weather beaten picnic table situated near the entrance to the school.

It wasn't a particularly popular place for the other students to spend their time, also being so close to the staff room. This had never been a problem for Buffy, Riley and their friends. They were the kind of students who had nothing to hide, who actually listened when teachers talked and who did their homework even when they knew it wouldn't be checked. All of them had run for captain when senior year rolled around, with the exception of Buffy, and most had succeeded. This was partly due to their maturity, their success intellectually and their honourably glowing record. At least, this was what had been written on the notes home and said in the new captain's speech during assembly.

On this particular morning, the same as every other, Buffy and Finn joined the table to a jumble of 'Hello's' and Good Morning's' murmured from sleepy tongues. Then they quickly returned to whatever asinine conversation they had been engaging in moments before and facing away from them, out into the courtyard, Buffy did her best to block them out.

At the same time that Buffy was wondering in a bored way why anyone would want to spend more than three seconds, let alone over ten minutes discussing the local council's plans for road improvement, Angel O'Connor was signing into school for the first time in almost a year.

Although he had entered the school building only five minutes prior, already he looked bored and somewhat distracted.

'Name?'

'Maur- wait, Angel, I mean.'

The middle-aged woman behind the bench looked him over suspiciously. 'Have you been taking marijuana, young man?'

Angel looked mildly startled, 'No! God, no - What?'

The woman sighed, shrugged and made some notes on his admission forms. 'You forgot your own name; it was a reasonable conclusion.'

'I'm just really tired. I had a dream last night that my name was-'

'Your first class is in D13. It's near the back, to the left.'

'Sure, ok.' Angel shook away the foggy clouds of confusion and agitation that drifted remarkably solidly across his mind.

'You'll need to get the head teachers of each department to sign your admission forms and return it to the office at the end of the day.'

'Uhuh.' He nodded without really listening and stood foolishly for a few moments, flicking through his papers.

'You can go now,' advised the woman rudely. She gestured to the door.

'Bye.' He wandered aimlessly out the glass double doors. There was something about the school which gave him the most uncomfortable sense of deja vu. Not as if he'd been here, but as if he ought to know... something.

Like most moments involving déjà vu, the answer was fluttering just millimetres from his reach and he was reluctant to swipe at it, in fear of damaging the fragile almost-memory. The whole thing was particularly frustrating for someone who had had very little to concern himself with in years. Over the last few weeks he had decided to ignore the oncoming threat of school. Returning to the caged, humdrum repetition of Stage Six education was to him, the emotional equivalent of watching a small patch of grass grow for the next year.

Having attended the twelfth grade at four different schools and finding variation distinctly lacking, Angel expected nothing new of Sunnydale.

The bell almost vibrated off the wall above him as it rang and he jumped, colliding with a young woman entering through the office doors he had been leaning against. 'Sorry,' he muttered half-heartedly. He gripped her elbow and pulled her up beside him, more out of keenness to miss class than courtesy or guilt.

The girl nodded at her feet in blank acknowledgement and flipped the long strands of hair out of her eyes.

'S'probably my fault., I wasn't looking.' She glanced up and half-smiled in the polite but uninterested way Angel had come to associate with people who would much rather be somewhere else.

But in the moment she looked at him, he thought none of this.

Instead he went limp and slid with a clatter of books and office doors clanging closed to the pebbled concrete where Buffy caught his head without thinking.

She sat beside him, his head in her lap, not really sure what to do. On one hand, she should get help, on the other; it didn't seem like a good idea to leave the man alone. Angel sat up and shakily stood. He patted himself down, almost disappointed to finding a serious injury that would help him evade school.

Disappointed, he turned to the girl with the long hair to thank her.

She was kneeling on the floor, Angels head cradled in her lap. Her brow was furrowed, an intense look of concentration and slight confusion on her slight features. 'Dead?' Angel asked as a half-question and to no-one in particular.

At the same moment he asked, the Angel on the floor twitched.

'I guess I must be-'

The Angel on the floor gave a strangled yell and writhed violently.

Buffy gripped his hair and tried to hold him still as he bucked viciously. Angel, not willing to find out if he was corporeal by talking a blow to the head, dodged his own feet and sat beside himself, watching silently. Eventually, his body stilled again. The conscious Angel, his brow furrowed and incoherent, senseless, ration-less thought marching through his mind like a thoroughfare, reached towards the body he had abandoned and pressed first a finger, then two and then his whole hand into his own arm. Surprised to find he was quite solid, he pressed harder.

Buffy's eyes widened. She watched Angels shoulder carefully. The muscles slipped and slid under nothing. Horrified, she scrambled to her feet and glanced around, still not willing to leave him alone.

'I need... help,' she called. She had given up before she had finished. The corridor was deserted.

She gritted her teeth and stepped over Angel. She had barely taken a step before he twitched again and made a quiet, but increasing noise of pain.

She made a small noise of indecision and then resolved herself. She doubled, kneeling beside him once again and determined that his head not collide with the concrete. The conscious Angel wrapped his arms loosely around his legs and rested his head lazily against the brick walling of the office. He sat up straight as his doppelganger convulsed and Buffy approached again.

In the smallest of seconds between Angel knowing something was wrong and the second when he realised he felt the change on such a primal level that it made him shake, the unconscious Angel had begun to have a fit. He jerked and shook on the floor with such force that it was difficult for Buffy to keep his head from hitting anything solid.

When Angel's body stilled again, the ghost of him had been called. Angel O'Connor was born for the _Electus_.

Every breath he had ever breathed, every second he had been alive had been designed for her protection, her shelter and her comfort. For all intents and purposes, this was nonsense, but it was all Angel felt.

In actual fact, he was born of woman and man as all are and until that moment had had very little to do with anything at all.

The world had been scoured for a man of Angel's calibre. One to whom the _Electus_ would be emotionally involved, but influential, trusted but respected and above all things, dedicated. This may have been deemed impossible by all those who believe in the individuality of the human soul.

Fortunately, those in Navistos held no such belief. All men of earth were equal and all women were designed to be content with them. And so, the cycle of a year had passed as a _Compleo_ had been searched for. Every corner and crevice of the realm was explored.

Angel O'Connor was believed an ideal match. The interferences began. Their meeting was foretold and would be followed by both of their callings.

The air around Angel seemed to rush away from him. He choked, sank to his knees and disappeared. When he opened his eyes again he was lying on his back, his head on Buffy's lap and she was looking down at him in utmost bewilderment.

'Are you okay?'

Angel groaned. Her efforts to secure his head, though determined had clearly been unsuccessful. The back of his head ached tenderly. It pulsed as if it had its own pounding heartbeat and he could almost feel it turning purple.

'Do you want me to get someone?' Buffy stood and was already making to get back into the office.

'Fine.' He muttered quickly and sat up. It was worse than all the hangovers he had had put together.

'You had... a fit or something...'

'Diabetic. He explained shortly.

'Oh. Shouldn't we still get someone? I tried to stop you but I think you hit your head.' Angel shook his vigorously and tried not to wince. 'I probably just need some sugar.' Buffy paused in indecision. Only moments ago he had been writhing in pain. He seemed fine now and she certainly didn't want to drag him to the hospital against his wishes.

After several tense moments she shrugged and nodded doubtfully. 'I'll come with you to class though.'

He nodded. 'I'm in D22.'

'Me too.' She half smiled.

He gestured in front of him. 'Lady's first.'

She smiled again.

He revelled in the fact that she probably thought he was a gentlemen now and felt only the slightest twinge of guilt that he had only thought of it because he needed to catch her if she fainted and in truth, he had only the vaguest idea where D22 was.

'I'm Angel,' Angel introduced quietly. 'Just in case you were wondering.'

'I was.' She assured him benevolently. 'I'm Buffy.'

'S'pretty name.' He commented.

She opened and closed her mouth awkwardly a few times before coming out with; 'Yours too?'

She silently berated herself but Angel grinned. 'Thanks.'

They were several minutes late but their teacher, a burly red necked man with a wiry beard who went by the name of Mr. Robin Wood, was scrawling on the whiteboard and didn't notice their late entrance.

Buffy took the seat Riley had saved her and waved an awkward goodbye to Angel, who took a seat beside a girl called Harmony.

Riley gave Buffy a questioning look but she shook her head dismissively and mouthed 'I'll tell you later.'

Riley nodded reluctantly, feeling slightly dissatisfied with this answer.

Buffy had just gotten out her pen and was beginning to take notes on the Theory of Relativity, when she breathed in sharply several times and slumped to the carpet.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter II

She crumbled off her plastic chair and slid almost gracefully onto the cheap, scratchy carpeting.

Chaos ensued. So many students rose and stampeded uncertainly towards the source of the commotion that the unconscious Buffy ran the risk of being lost beneath their feet.

After a few puzzling moments, order was instilled. A vague semi-circle was formed around Buffy. She began to awake seconds later.

Buffy pressed her eyelids together as tightly as she could.

'Did you see what happened, Riley?'

'She just collapsed. Should we call an ambulance?'

'I think she's waking up.'

Buffy groaned. Aside from a quiet curiosity as to what was going on, she would be quite happy to lie stretched out like she was forever. Therefore it was with annoyance she realised she was caught out and with some trepidation that she opened her eyes. The faces of her classmates loomed over her. Each of them was blurrier than the next and all like a badly constructed watercolour.

She sat up unsteadily. 'What happened?'

Perhaps eight pairs of hands hovered around her nervously but she shook them off. She raised her head to look at them all, but her words became lost.

Each person in the room was surrounded by dull, grey, but undoubtable solid people. Each with a morose but indifferent attitude hovered beside their individual student. Some had only one, others had three or four. Mr Wood had seven. The first coherent thought she had about it was that it made the room unbearably over crowded. 'Sorry...'

'What?' Riley enquired. Several unfamiliar people watched her over his shoulder with emotionless eyes.

'I have to go.'

'But you-'

She scooped her belongings into her bag and rushed outside the door. 'Bye.'

Angel did the same and hurried after her. 'She's fine people. Just forgot to eat breakfast, is all.'

The door slammed loudly behind him.

In the silence that followed, almost a third of the class voiced the same question; _'Who the hell was that guy?' _

In the hallway, Buffy ran towards the parking lot, not really sure what she was going to do once she got there. She could hear the heavy footfalls of someone following her but didn't turn around, assuming it was Riley.

Halfway down the corridor she turned, ignoring the dizziness sudden movement inspired.

'Riley , I –'

Angel stood less than three metres from her, looking not in the least bit surprised. 'You're alone.' She stated absentmindedly.

'Yeah.' He took a cautious step towards her.

There are no... grey things around you...'

He took another step. 'No. They're called shadows and I don't have any.'

She backed away for the first time. 'Why? How do you know what I...' She trailed off. She didn't know how to put the insanity around her into words without making herself seem insane.

'You can't be crazy,' she told herself, 'Crazy people don't know they're crazy.'

'You're not crazy,' Angel assured her.

She looked up, eyes wide and shining. 'Do you see them too?'

'No.'

'Then how...'

'It's a long story.'

'If this isn't all caused by a giant tumour I have time for a long story.'

He grinned but controlled himself when he realised she wasn't joking.

He helped her into an empty classroom and into a chair. She clutched her head weakly but still demanded. 'Tell me.'

'Not now. You should go home, get some rest.'

'I can take it.'

He shook his head. 'I doubt it.'

None of her resolution faded. He looked quite wretched but after a moment of consideration he gave a short, stiff nod like he was agreeing to go to the gallows. 'It's a long story.'

'I've got time.'

'Fine,' he bit out. 'Have you read the bible?'

'Yes. I read it when I was ten.'

He nodded slowly. 'Do you remember the part about Adam and Eve?' Buffy nodded.

'And their sons?'

'Yes. Cain killed Abel.'

'He tried.'

'What?'

'Cain and Abel didn't get along.'

'Right, that's why he killed him.'

'No, he only tried. Do you want me to tell you?'

She shook her head, 'Yes. Sorry.'

'Cain tried to kill Abel. He failed and was exiled from this dimension. Abel was discontent with this world even after Cain had left it. He saw the greed and wrath that could be in this place and he left it. Like, Cain, God created a dimension solely for Abel. The ancients were great sorcerers and they made their realms as they wished. The sons of Adam were a different breed altogether, the children they left with their wives were diluted, but still stronger than any man. After many hundreds of years Adam and Eve died and the Ancients were forgotten.'

Buffys' brow was furrowed and her eyes were filled with intense concentration as if she were trying to remember something from very long ago. Eventually she looked up. 'There was a third son.'

Angel nodded dismally, 'Seth.'

'Then he stayed here?'

'Yes.'

'But he must have died.'

'Not exactly. He made a deal with Cain. He agreed to ally himself with Cain if Cain found a way for him to be immortal.'

'And did he?'

'Yes. Seth had no desire to live in Cains world but he wanted forever on Earth.' 'Then... how?'

'I don't know but it's something dark, something unnatural.' Angels brow was drawn, his mouth set. He looked entirely horror-struck. 'This realm was never meant to be a host for the immortal.'

She shook her head erratically. 'I don't understand what this has to with us.' 'You are the _Electus_.'

'What are you?'

'The _Compleo_. Abel has enlisted us to fight the Ancients.'

Indignity fought its way through her confusion. 'So they just expect me to do all their dirty work down here for nothing? I don't even get protection?'

'I am your protection.' Angel pointed out.

'What are you going to do against an Ancient?'

He pointedly ignored her question. 'You do get payment.'

'What do I get?'

'The blood of a virgin.'

She made a face. 'Urgh.. why would I _want _- ?'

'The last _Electus_ was a sorceress. Virgin blood was a powerful asset and hard to come by.'

'How much blood?'

He looked surprised. 'I don't know. A lot. Why, do you want some?'

She shook her head forcefully. 'No! I don't know why I asked that. I think I need to go home.'

'Alright.' He was disappointed, but his it well and recovered quickly. 'I can drive you.'

'No, it's alright.'

'I want to.'

'My mum can pick me up,' she argued.

They eyed each other warily. Angel clenched his jaw tensely and Buffy jammed her hands together.

'I shouldn't have told you yet.' Angel muttered to himself grimly.

'I'm fine.' she snapped, 'I'm not some fragile little doll you need to take care of. You had the whole thing shoved in your brain half an hour ago and your fine.'

'No, I know that. Of course I know that. I just... I know it. I don't have to see it. There's a whole section of my brain that was designed for this, but you were just... ' 'Good.' Buffy cut him off and gave an awkward jerking nod.

She turned before he could say anything else and almost leapt out of the cupboard. Despite her adept swiftness, he managed to catch her hand before she reached the safety of the hallway.

She turned already forming a brush off but the helplessness in his eyes stopped her. She was disgruntled, but paused long enough for him to speak.

It wasn't until he was given the opportunity that Angel realised he had nothing to say. No words, no explanation. No key phrase he could say that would make everything better, make the last hour sink into the churning sea of time and the shock in her eyes fade enough for her to see that in its own, twisted manner, what she had become was what she had been aching to be for years. Buffy waited long enough that she was sure he had nothing to say and gently pried his hand from hers. He allowed it, but never took his eyes off her, watching her still as she turned on her heel and began wandering weakly but ambitiously down the hall. He almost called out to her when she flinched at the solidness of the door on her palm and the way her knees simply seemed to give up underneath her on more than one occasion, but he refrained. Buffy pushed herself towards the administration office, determined to get there before the halls became flooded with students, shoving and stumbling towards first period. Her dazed fascination with the surrealism of her surroundings worked against her and her slow amble was interrupted by the clanging of the nine-fifteen bell. The corridor was suddenly infested with students and their shadows, glaring trepidation present in their deep set eyes. Even the smallest of the whole school seemed to loom above her. Their shadows shook unsteadily. The noise of the congested hallway and her sudden inability to make out reality from her own manic illusions made her head spin. She breathed heavily, avoiding the eyes of the watching shadows and felt her way to the stairs. She clutched the rail like a life-line and closed her eyes.

She covered her face with her hands and trembled but Angel caught her hands. As gently as he could, he pushed them back to her sides.

'Don't be so obvious.'

'What?' she gasped.

He just shook his head and helped her down the stairs and across the quad, into the car park. He helped her into the car seat. She was still breathing heavily.

'I didn't mean to sneak up on you.' He apologised.

She nodded numbly.

They slid into silence until Angel pulled up in her driveway.

'Thanks.' Buffy whispered.

'S'fine,' he brushed off. 'Will you be at school tomorrow?'

'I guess so. It's not like I'm sick.'

'I'spose,' he mumbled. They were quiet again for a moment. 'What will you do for the rest of the day?'

'I think I'm gonna have my work cut out for me with not hyperventilating.'

He grinned but thinking better of it, let it fade and returned to his usual stoic expression.

'Dammit.' She muttered.

Angel shot up immediately, surveying they're surroundings. 'What? What's wrong?' Buffy looked positively startled. 'Nothing. I just remembered I have to go to the theatre tonight.'

'Theatre?'

'We have tickets for this show. Just not really in the mood to see ballerinas and ghost... people. They are ghosts, I take it?'

'They are. Tell your parents you're not going.'

She seemed discontent with this option.

'Come on.' He urged, 'You're eighteen. What can they do to you?'

Buffy looked confused. 'I'm only seventeen.'

'Oh, I just assumed-'

'How old are you?'

'Technically I'm eighteen and a half. Legally I'm seventeen.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'I'll explain later.'

'Fantastic.' She said sardonically. 'I better go.'

'Right.'

She nodded to herself a couple of times and then opened the door, swinging herself out of the car. Angel waited until he couldn't see her anymore before reversing out of the drive and Buffy stood on the porch, just out of sight, and waited until he had disappeared on the main road before she went inside.

'What are you doing here?'

Buffy started. Her mother was stirring something in a large silver pot.

'No-one,' she said quickly. 'I mean - nothing. I mean I felt sick.'

'Alright,' Joyce said. She turned her back on Buffy, who mentally cursed herself for being so indiscreet.

'You should probably get some rest then.'

'Yeah, actually.' Buffy agreed quickly. 'And I was thinking I should probably skip that play tonight.'

'You'll be better by then.' Joyce's tone left no room for argument.

Buffy sighed in resignation and took the stairs two at a time until she came to her room. Her bag dropped to the hardwood floors with a dull thud and Buffy made the same muffled noise as she collapsed onto her bed.

She curled into the foetal position and hugged her pillow to her. What seemed this morning to have had no scent, now smelt of damp lilacs, lavender detergent, honey soap and something indescribable but utterly unforgettable. More than this, it was as if since that morning she had become a real person. Someone with feelings and opinions and a secret; someone with a scent.

A fatal, perilous and bewildering adventure was stretched before her for who-only-knew how long and it was all she could do not to laugh.

Buffy rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. She grinned broadly and began to laugh until she was doubled over with breathlessness. She watched as they hit her knee and bounced up again, never actually touching her. They were insubstantial as air but so vivid to her eyes that she wondered idly if she was going mad. A psychotic teenager having hallucinations certainly made more sense than anything that had happened that day.

Her laughter died quietly and almost as soon as it had gone she missed it. The silence was too much. The shadows made no noise but it was a peculiar quiet to be away from them.

The hush hung heavy over her head.

Shakily, she rose of the bed and opened her cupboard door. Green eyes stared back at her. Where that morning their colour had seemed dull, now they shined. Where her skin had been monotonous, it flushed as if she had been running in a cold wind. Her hair fell on her face in a way that was utterly unique. Each strand had darkened to a distinctive gleaming gold.

To any other eye she was exactly as she had been that morning. But to Buffy, there was no comparison. She was finally 3D.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter III

Although furious with herself (her ineptitude when it came to being anything but dutiful still surprised her) she obediently dressed in a blue cocktail dress and rode in concerted but silent submission all the way to the theatre.

The dancers and actors performed, followed closely by their sallow faced shadows and Buffy did her best not to show signs that anything out of the ordinary was relief of leaving the theatre was momentary and fleeting. Her room, though mad as the rest of the world was the real relief. Inside the four walls, her hallucinations finally quietened to silence.

Although the desperate sprint upstairs might not have been subtle, it seemed necessary to remain sane. She flung her French doors open and dived for the slipped, almost immediately into an eerie dream. Angel told her in a calm voice he was dropping out of school to be a dancer so she would have to go down to Nascostas and face Cain alone. After looking away for only a second, Angel's face became that of Cain himself and the twisted, deformed monster reached for her throat. Choking, she jerked awake. They were nearing daylight saving and though nearing nine; light still filtered through the open window, though where it came from was indistinguishable.

She gingerly gathered herself up out of the bed and wandered towards the cupboard. She had fallen asleep in her dress and now it was crumpled and wrinkled around her. Buffy slipped it off and skimmed a short cotton nightie over her head. Exhausted she made back towards the bed. Her stomach growled in protest.

Sighing, she crept into the hall, down the stairs into the kitchen. She arranged a large bowl of cheerio's and was just about to sneak back upstairs when there was a gentle tapping on the double glass doors directly adjacent the steps.

Angel stood, hand fisted in pockets and clearly visible through the clean glass. Buffy set the bowl on the stairs and tip-toed back. Quietly as she could, she unlocked the doors and ushered him inside. A cold draught followed him and she shivered. 'What are you doing here?' She hissed.

'I figured you might have some more questions.'

Buffy stood aside and he treaded softly inside the door. She closed it behind him and turned. She took the steps two at a time, not checking if he was following. The bowl of cheerio's lay forgotten on the bottom step.

Buffy pushed the door to her room open and took a seat on the bay window. Her legs curled up under her chin and she wrapped her arms around them. Angel sat beside her.

Questions formed and then disintegrated in her mind until – 'Where did you come from?'

'I've been around. I spent the last couple of years travelling, mostly around Europe.' Her eyes widened, 'Where'd you go?'

'Everywhere. I stayed in Italy the longest.'

'How did you afford that?'

He shifted, not quite meeting her eyes. 'Would you judge me if I said credit card theft?'

Buffy nodded earnestly.

He nodded slowly and then shrugged. 'Then I was a busker.'

She eyed him severely.

'Well I avoided it when I could. I had jobs but they never lasted. My bosses hated me.'

'Why?'

He shrugged nonchalantly, 'I stole their credit cards.'

She rolled her eyes. 'Why do you lie about your age?

He looked slightly uncomfortable. 'I'm in foster care; if they find out I'm over eighteen my foster parents will kick me out.'

'How did you-'

'In knew a guy in Italy, wrote up some papers, convinced everyone they had the wrong idea. It wasn't that hard, I stole all my papers before I left anyway. And they couldn't figure it out anyway- I used to go by Maurice.'

She furrowed her brow. 'As in space cowboy?'

He gave a consenting shrug.

She nodded slowly, trying to take it all in and they tumbled gracelessly into quiet again.

'Who's the guy?'

'Guy?'

'The one you sat next to in science?'

'Oh. Riley.'

'Just Riley?'

'Well, technically he's my boyfriend.'

Without meaning to, Angel rose from his seat. 'Boyfriend?'

Buffy looked quite alarmed at his abruptness. 'Yeah. It's not like I knew this was going to happen.'

He sat again. Buffy was pleased to see him look slightly ashamed. 'Right.'

'D'you have a - ?'

'No.' He said hastily. 'I don't like girls.'

'What?'

'No – not – I like girls, just not... high-school girls.'

'Oh.' She sighed in relief. 'Me either.'

'Really?'

'They're insipid.'

'Yeah, I – '

'What is this?'

'Sorry?'

She motioned between them. 'This thing.'

He still looked confused so she attempted elaboration. 'My heart has been trying beat up my rib cage all day but when your around it's like... it's still beating too hard… but I don't mind anymore.'

His eyes widened. 'That's the nicest, weirdest thing anyone's ever said to me.'

'What is it?'

'Something Abel did.' Angel answered shortly.

'I figured. What did he do?'

'Abel is a higher Ancient so he controls things like happiness, peace... love.'

She stared at him. 'That's what this is?'

Angel nodded in silent conformation.

'And Abel did it?'

'So we wouldn't give up and just go our separate ways.' He explained.

'I love you?'

'Afraid so.'

'And you...'

He nodded and half-smiled.

'Are we supposed to care that we're being controlled like this?'

'Maybe. I don't think it would matter if we did.'

'You don't?'

'I'm not going 'Yay, I'm a puppet,' but it's not keeping me up at night. It's love... there's not a lot bothering me.'

'I love you?' She repeated it to herself as a question and leaned against the pile of European cushions stacked in the corner of her window. 'I love you?'

'I love you.' He answered.

Buffy's eyes widened and she looked up.

'What, are you surprised?'

She inched towards him. 'I didn't realise we were saying it.'

'Do you want me to take it back?'

She shook her head and inched closer again until their faces were centremetres apart. 'I think I love you.' He brushed a long strand of hair off her face and smiled softly. 'That's very reassuring.'

She opened her mouth to say it again and say it better, but was silenced by his kiss.

After several long moments she pulled away, shaking slightly. He enveloped her trembling hands in his and lay back on the European pillows. Her mind was still a thoroughfare of half-formed, unanswered questions but every other part of her ached with exhaustion. So she leaned back against him and they fell asleep together against the window until the morning.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter IV

A car horn honked.

Angel shifted reluctantly. Buffy half moaned in protest. The horn sounded again. Buffy concentrated hard on gathering the four spread eagled corners of her consciousness and folding them back inside her mind.

With the seemingly impossible task completed, she sat up. The digital alarm clock on her desk read 8:05am. She promptly swore.

She pushed her dress down; it had gathered around her waist and shook Angel awake. He growled loudly and firmly pushed her away. She landed on the edge of her bed and huffed indignantly.

Half panicked she swept her phone off the bedside table and leapt down the stairs, taking them three at a time. She dialled as she ran.

Upstairs Angel grumbled audibly. Without sitting up he squeezed his phone out his back pocket like the last glob of toothpaste in an old tube and flipped it out. 'Mumgraf?'

'What?' He started to answer but she interrupted. 'Never mind. You have to wake up.'

'I'm awake. Where are you?'

'Downstairs. I have to talk to Riley. You get dressed.' She didn't wait for him to answer but waved to her confused parents and slipped out the glass double doors. She recklessly sprinted across the wet porch. Riley was waiting in the car, looking politely confused. She had never been late before.

'You can't go to school in that,' he advised her carefully the very second she wrenched the door open.

She resisted rolling her eyes with the mere fraction of sanity that remained. 'I know. I overslept.'

'You never oversleep.'

'Why don't you go to school and I'll just meet you there?'

'How will you get there?'

'I'll get a lift. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine.'

'Alright.' He still seemed doubtful but he acquiesced reluctantly. He reversed out of the drive and Buffy waved.

She retreated to the house wearily, waved off the curious stares of her mother and father and trotted upstairs. Angel was wandering her room aimlessly, touching several items and trinkets with his forefinger as a person with OCD might.

She sighed. 'Can you drive me to school?'

'Yeah. I guess you had to turn your boyfriend away. Will you break up with him?'

'I'm going to.' She promised.

'When?' He demanded eagerly.

'I don't know.'

'Do it today.' Angel demanded.

'He has SAT prep today.'

'So?'

'I don't have time for this,' she groaned. 'I have to shower.'

'Now?'

'Before school would be nice.'

Angel sighed loudly and flopped back on her bed. He slid the half opened text book off her bedside table and began to read, seemingly avidly.

Buffy collected her things and firmly locked the bathroom door as she went in. She wasn't afraid he would join her as much as she was that she almost wanted him to.

Angel waited until he heard the hissing of the shower head steaming up the bathroom before he threw the dog eared copy of _Grays Anatomy_ aside and rolled over into the pillows. Her scent was everywhere. He thought grimly that she was impossible to escape but remembering sleepily where he was, he realised this made a great deal of sense.

His phone made a loud bringing and he jumped half out of his skins. The caller ID claimed home but it meant something else entirely.

With resigned resentment in his heart, he flipped it open and steeled himself for the never-ending stream of necessary lies which would soon flow smoothly off his tongue. 'Hello?'

'Where are you?' A woman snapped.

'School. I left early.' He answered shortly.

'Did you go out last night?'

'Course not.'

'I checked on you at six and you were already gone.'

'I had to get up early for period zero.' He lied.

'What'd you have?'

'Maths.'

'You didn't take maths.' The woman's anger was fading, now she just seemed faintly exasperated.

The door opened and Buffy wandered in, juggling a towel and three bottles of shampoo, conditioner and soap. Her wet hair dripped lankly by her waist and was steadily turning her white school uniform see through where it was already plastered to her body. Angel fumbled, hopelessly distracted.

'Who is it?' Buffy mouthed.

'I have to go.' Angel excused himself to the woman on the phone. She began to protest but he closed the phone on her and threw it on the bed. He took the three bottles from Buffy and set them on the desk as she tried to towel the many layers of her hair so that they might stop making her look like she'd jumped in the ocean in full school uniform.

'Are you ready to go?' She asked him.

'We'll have to go by my place first and get my school stuff.'

'We'll be late.'

'Probably.' He muttered nonchalantly. 'How am I getting out of here?'

Buffy glanced at the digital clock on her desk. It read 8:30; this meant her mother would be in the office doing her father's paperwork and he would already have left for his private practice, where he worked as a doctor.

'They're gone,' she said. 'We can just go out the door.'

They tip-toed out the front door and wandered down the driveway and through a back street until they found where Angel had parked his car, rather badly, against the kerb.

Angel reversed out of the street and turned left at the end of her road. His house was a rundown yellow square surrounded by crackling grass.

'Qua operor vos ago?' Buffy asked, but then stopped. 'What was that?'

Angel shifted guiltily, 'What was what?'

'That – what I just said?'

'It was nothing, it's just-'

'It sounded like... Latin. I speak Latin?'

He gave a half shrug and wouldn't meet her eyes. 'We both do. I was going to tell you but I sort of - forgot.'

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to voice her thousands of questions. Eventually she gasped 'Why?' and was embarrassed to find that her throat was hot and her eyes were burning. Of all the things that had happened, she was crying about being bilingual. 'It's just what we spoke in our past life.'

She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue and nodded slowly, taking time to insure that her voice was completely steady. 'We had a past life?'

He nodded.

She moved hand back and crossed her arms. Her cheek burned but she brushed it off. 'Were we... married or something?'

'Not exactly. We died before we could get married.'

She moaned softly and wrapped her arms around herself. Angel unlocked his front door and made his way towards his room. Angel's foster parents had already left for work but there was a note on his unmade bed which read; 'I know you weren't home last night, we'll talk when you get back from school.'

Buffy winced. 'Sorry I got you in trouble.'

He shrugged coolly. 'I got myself in trouble. Besides,' He yanked a uniform off a hanger, turned around to kiss her firmly on the lips and rapidly disappeared into the bathroom. 'It was worth it.'

She slumped down on the bed, a faint blush colouring her cheeks, and pressed her hand to her lips. Angel returned moment later, showered and in uniform and they drove to school together.

They spoke mostly in Latin, switching back and forth seamlessly and without noticing. Angel explained that she would have to be careful not to speak Latin to anyone else and Buffy despaired, much to Angel's amusement, that already, she had lost the ability to tell the difference. 'Just think before you speak, it's not that hard.'

She agreed resolutely.

He also explained that remnants of their previous lives would continue to assemble themselves but that Buffy, already having vivid hallucinations, would have fewer aspects, so as to be able to remain sane.

When they arrived at school, well into first period, they were met by Riley, who was collecting photocopies in the off.

'Buffy,' he smiled and kissed her cheek. 'What happened to you yesterday? I called you about fifty times. I thought I wasn't going to see you today.'

'Ut would exsisto a dedecus,' grumbled Angel derisively.

Riley looked confused. 'What?'

Buffy interjected nervously. 'He said it's good to see you're so dedicated to your...' she took a quick glance at the papers the photo copier was spitting out. 'Biology class.'

'I thought you said-'

'He was mumbling,' Buffy explained.

She looked at Angel for support.

'Yeah.' He fake yawned. 'Must be tired.'

'That why you're late?' Riley asked politely.

'Yeah,' Angel agreed. He glared at Buffy pointedly. 'Someone kept me up last night.'

The photocopier quietened and Riley leant over it to gather the sheet. Buffy eyed Angel angrily.

'Angel was nice enough to give me a lift today.' Buffy clarified. She thought it would seem less sordid if she just admitted it.

Riley looked hurt. 'I would have waited.'

'I didn't want to make you late,' Buffy explained. 'And Angel had slept in too, so...'Riley smiled at him, 'Thanks, man.'

A shadow woman with long grey hair shifted behind him. She held a tiny baby in her arms, no more than a few minutes old. Buffy shook her head.

He turned to Buffy. 'You coming to class now?'

She nodded and he took her hand, leading her out of the office. When she turned back, Angel was glaring after them.

'I though it wasn't that hard,' She mouthed disdainfully behind Riley's back.

He rolled his eyes and turned around.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter V

'Has anyone on Earth become immortal since Seth?'

Buffy was stretched across Angel's bed lazily, an English textbook and a complex looking homework task before her.

Angel spun in his office chair and shook his head. 'Others have come close. But immortality on this plane is something far different from immortality on another.' She rolled onto her back and propped herself up on her elbows. 'What do you mean?' Angel swallowed and tried to focus on her face. 'In this plane, to be immortal is to outlive any existing memory of human existence. It may take thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years, but the immortal will age in this dimension and they _will_ die. It is inevitable.'

'Do you know how he does it?'

'Sort of. I don't know the specifics but it's nothing like being immortal in Navistos. He dies when he's body expires, like all people; he's just reborn again. Sometimes as a man or a woman; always the same person.'

'Then what does it mean to be immortal in Navistos?'

'To have lived before the beginning and to live even after the end of time. To have a life, like ring. No ending, no beginning. It is a breed, an elite race, not a temporary earthbound trick, doomed to fail before the end of any era. To have accomplished something even close in this realm is an atrocity.'

'So Seth can be killed?'

'It's more complicated than that. All the information is still coming to me. Right now all I've got is that it would take an incredibly destructive force, but it can be done.' She bit her lip. 'How destructive?'

He sighed and mumbled to himself as if he was working out a complicated equation. 'End of the world destructive,' he answered eventually, rather matter-of-factly.

'That doesn't sound particularly doable.'

'Yeah,' He furrowed his brow thoughtfully and spun his chair back to face the desk. 'I assume there's another way.'

She raised her eyebrows. 'One would hope so.'

'While we're on this topic,' he began after a time, 'when are you going to break up with Riley?'

Buffy rolled her eyes and let her elbows go so that she flopped back onto the bed.

'I think it's a fair question,' Angel pointed out.

She sighed. 'I'll do it after the SAT'S. Is that alright with you?'

'How far away are the SAT'S?'

'Two weeks.'

He pursed his lips. 'I suppose... it depends.'

She sighed again, 'On?'

'Are you having sex with him?' he asked rather abruptly.

She sat up so fast that all the blood rushed to her head. 'What?'

'Well if you are,' he swallowed quite louder than necessary. 'I think you need to break up with him now.'

She stared at him for several moments before swinging her legs over the side of his bed so she was facing him. 'I'm not.'

Angel had been involuntarily holding his breath and he breathed out again loudly when she spoke. After a moment or two, he said, 'I know this might sound like I'm trying to talk you into it, which believe me, I'm not, but haven't you been with him for like... three years?'

'Four, actually,' she corrected. 'Since the first day of high school. It just never came up.'

'So you're a virgin,' he said, much louder than was strictly essential.

She cringed.

'Sorry,' Angel apologised. 'I meant to say that in my head.'

'S'fine,' she said shakily. 'I take it you have...'

He met her eyes guiltily. 'Yeah...'

Buffy pressed her lips together and nodded slowly. 'Do you want to stop talking about this?' She asked eventually.

'Desperately.' He agreed.

After an hour or so he drove her home, stopping only briefly to introduce her to his harassed looking foster parents.

When she arrived home her mother was wiping down the large oak dining table. Joyce didn't hear her daughter enter, so Buffy cleared her throat.

Joyce looked up briefly and half-smiled. 'Hello. Where've you been?'

'Riley's,' Buffy lied smoothly as she sat down at the table.

Joyce didn't question her, merely nodded. She began to turn towards the kitchen but Buffy caught her hand. 'Mum?'

'Yes, sweetheart?'

'Can I talk to you a minute?'

Joyce thought for a moment, looking worried, and scratched her head thoughtfully. 'I suppose so.' She took a seat across from Buffy.

Buffy contemplated her words carefully before she said them. 'I was wondering if I seem different at all?'

Joyce looked politely surprised. 'Not particularly. Should you?'

Buffy's face fell, but she tried again. 'Okay, well, I wanted to know if you ever got tired of being standard issue girl. Didn't you ever wish you'd done something extraordinary? Don't you ever get tired of this life?'

'Of what dear?'

Buffy licked her lips nervously. 'Just... being all ordered and perfectly sanitized and colour coordinated.'

'I'm sure I don't know what you mean.'

'I mean... didn't you ever want anything else?'

Her eyebrows rose in polite surprise. 'What more is there to want?'

Buffy smiled grimly and with an odd mixture of relief, disappointment and a spreading indifference, she slid off the dining table and marched upstairs. -

It's not that Buffy Summers was ever mistreated, nothing like that.

Buffy was respected and expected to respect in return. She was allowed to be independent, mostly because she was trusted, but more than anything she thought it was because they simply couldn't imagine a child of their own making doing anything but behaving as a conservative, unadventurous young lady. It seemed at times that they thought of her as more an extension of themselves than as an actual person, with their own ideals and ambitions. To them, her failures and achievements were shared. She always felt ungrateful even thinking about having more than she already did, but she thought about it nonetheless. Buffy was clothed, fed and kept under a stable roof – her parents never fought in front of her and if anything was going to change, she was always kept in the loop. When they moved, last year, it was a unanimous decision between the three of them but sometimes it was all she could do not to let out her longing for an unconventional family life. She wanted her mother to be the kind of quirky woman that sings all the time and her dad to scream at football players like they might listen. She wanted to laugh at dinner until diet coke came out her nose and not worry about being proper. She wanted there to be clothes strewn over the lounge, food fights and maybe even a puppy eating one of their ridiculous handmade dining room chairs. Essentially Buffy just wanted a bit of chaos, though she couldn't tell you why. She thought maybe everyone had that kind of wanting for what they don't have.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter VI

The next day was a Friday and went without a hitch. Buffy spent the day with Riley, much to Angel's disdain, and the evening with Angel, to Riley's blissful ignorance. The weekend was also spent with Angel as they gradually discovered the hidden talents surfacing from the far reaches of their minds. By Monday, Angel remembered a large portion of their former lives and on Sunday morning he discovered that he was able to receive 'flashes' of information at random intervals. Buffy, who he phoned at five am, was slightly less impressed.

Buffy, for her part, was unable to remember any of their lives with the exception of a burning room and a sinking feeling of terror, neither of which she found to be very encouraging.

At Buffys insistence, Angel explained how he had come to be in Foster care. After much pushing, he enlightened her.

'My parents were dead beats,' he said, 'My mum ditched me on my dad when I was three and he beat me around the house till I was five, fed me mostly on cough syrup and potato chips.'

'What happened when you were five?' Buffy looked almost afraid of the answer.

'He got high and killed a prostitute.'

Angel saw the look on her face and backtracked. 'He didn't do it on purpose, just gave her some bad junk.'

'Is it weird that that makes me feel better.'

'I don't know,' he muttered abruptly. He glanced away from her. 'Can we just never talk about the fact that I was born out filth again? It's not my favourite topic.'

'I would think you'd be proud,' she said slowly.

'Proud?' he spat.

They were sitting at the far ends of his moth eaten couch. She took his hand. 'That you made something out of yourself from nothing.'

He smirked grimly. 'I don't think I made anything.'

Buffy smiled gently and looked away. 'I think you did.'

'So what's it like in Nascostas?' Buffy asked on Monday afternoon. Her parents were working late and she'd snuck him into her house.

Angel looked disturbed. 'I don't know exactly. Why do you want to know?'

She shrugged. 'Just curious.'

'I don't know exactly... I don't think we've ever been there but I've been told things.' 'So?' She pushed. 'What's it like?'

'It's dark. It's black all around and you can't tell if your eyes are opened or closed... somehow it doesn't matter.' Angel paused and wet his lips. 'There are thing that want to hurt. It's so quiet but it's quiet like a scream.'

Buffy shivered and rolled her neck back. It cricked in the silence. She looked as if she was just barely repressing a shudder. She was beginning to regret asking. 'What do they want to hurt?'

He shrugged in a blank, helpless way. 'Anything. Everything.'

'Will we get help?' she asked, abruptly shattering the silence left by his admission. 'From Navistos, I mean?'

'I guess so. There was a seer named Hanar who helped us last time. He died two or three weeks before we did. He used to get warnings, Navistos used to try and use him as a vessel. I think I must have the same sort of thing now, with my flashes, I mean.' 'So they're like messages from Navistos?' Buffy clarified.

'I think so, I haven't really had any important ones yet, just specific information about our lives. Just little things, like Hanar...'

'Angel?' Buffy began tentatively.

'Yeah?'

'Do I want to know how we died?'

He shook his head avidly.

'Oh. That bad?'

'Whatever you're thinking,' Angel said, 'It's about ten time worse.'

She frowned. 'Very reassuring.'

Weeks passed. The SAT'S came and went. Buffy had very little time to study but felt she'd done well anyway. So much dedication before she'd been called had finally payed off. Riley also felt he'd done well, though the result wouldn't be mailed to them for several weeks.

Angel, though not an intellectual and having missed several years of school had a peculiar gift for testing well.

Only minutes after the SAT'S, Angel returned to harassing Buffy.

'It's over now,' he insisted, 'Can't you break up with him?'

'Fine,' she snapped. 'But go home, I'll call you tonight.'

He grinned broadly, checked that no-one was looking and kissed her full on the lips. She struggled not to laugh as he turned and sprinted back to his car.

Riley was waiting for her beside his old white Holden. He too, kissed her when she approached. 'How'd you go?' he asked eagerly.

'Good,' she muttered, 'Really good... what about you?'

'Yeah, there were a couple of questions I didn't see coming but most of it was okay. It just sucks we have to wait so long for the results.'

'Mmm,' she agreed half heartedly. 'Listen, Riley...' She trailed off. The old woman holding the baby made a sudden movement towards him and then faded into the background with the other shadows.

Buffy had been disturbed by the woman and the baby, but not surprised. Riley's grandmother had died a week before he was born and Riley had begun life as a twin. His brother died moments after being born. He'd had stage six asthma and couldn't breathe.

But now the woman seemed restless, disturbed even and the air behind her seemed to shiver with anticipation. There was something there.

'What?' he half smiled in confusion. 'What are you looking at?' He spun around but predictably, he saw nothing. His rapid movements swept the almost shadow away and the sir was still again.

'I have to go...' she said slowly.

'What? Why?' He looked bemused. 'How will you get home?'

'I'll get a lift,' she said, already backing away. Her eyes trained on where the shimmer had been.

'From Angel?' He called as she was turning around.

'Maybe, I don't know.'

She left him glumly confused in her wake.

Buffy ran up the stairs and through the school until she came to the car park in the upper wing. Angel was lying across the hood of his car, the sun drifting across his skin.

She called his name and he sat up excitedly. 'Did you break up with him?'

Buffy shook her head, slightly out of breath. 'There's something... near Riley?'

Angel still looked slightly put out but his eyes widened alertly. 'What is it? A shadow?'

'Sort of. I don't know, it's so blurry.'

He furrowed his brow. 'Blurry?'

'I can't see a face. What does that mean?'

'Maybe they haven't died yet?' Angel suggested.

'Does it work like that?'

He shrugged. 'Why not?'

She rolled her eyes. 'Your guesswork is so helpful.'

'Better theory than you have.'

'I don't have a theory,' She pointed out.

'Exactly.' He said, as if this settled the matter.

She slid onto the car beside him and elbowed him in the ribs.

He made a small noise of annoyance. 'It's not my fault we weren't issued with an encyclopaedia.'

She sighed wistfully. 'An encyclopaedia would be nice.'

'So what do you think it is?'

'Probably what you said.' She agreed morosely.

'Great,' Angel muttered distractedly. 'When are you gonna break up with him?'

'Maybe I should wait until that person has died and then I can help him.'

'Kinda seems like you're just looking for excuses.'

'I'm not, I promise,' she insisted. 'It's just complicated.'

'What's complicated? You either love someone or you don't.'

'We've been practically betrothed since birth. It's not like I can just march up to him and announce I've moved on.'

'I don't see why not.'

'I think you're being a little unreasonable.'

'No I'm not.'

She raised her eyebrows sceptically but said nothing.

'Well I don't particularly like being the mistress.' He said indignantly.

She rolled her eyes. 'You're not a mistress.'

'Then break up with him.'

'I'll break up with him a little while after that person dies.' She reasoned.

'How long will that be?'

'How should I know? Look, if I break up with him today and his grandpa dies tomorrow, he might kill himself.'

'You really think he's going to kill himself?' Angel asked sceptically.

'No.'

He looked annoyed.

'I just don't want to be what makes it a possibility.'


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter VIII

Days drifted past. Few students attended school; exams were over and there was no longer a purpose to it. Buffy spent much of her time with Angel, insisting to Riley she was at home and to her parents that she was with Riley. Riley's shimmer didn't fade but nor did it grow clearer, much to Angel's frustration.

Buffys shoulder healed swiftly but the bruises which decorated Angel's neck grew only slightly fainter.

Angels parents were hardworking and though they obviously tried to be a family for Angel, he seemed quite opposed to having one. When they were home, he merely grunted at them. Buffy had seen them only twice since she'd been introduced to them and all she knew about them was that she was a big shot lawyer's secretary and he worked for an electrical company called EnergyStar.

They had been procrastinating in his basement for over two hours when Buffy decided they were both beginning to suffer from a Vitamin D deficiency due to all the time spent in his room and dragged him outside.

Angel showed her some vine covered lattice out the back and they used it to climb onto the roof, where the sun was strongest. They had only been enjoying the sun for an hour or so before the sky rumbled disagreeably, clouds marched decidedly across the sky and it began to rain heavily.

They scrambled back inside but by the time they flew through the front screen door they were already wet through. Their clothes clung to them in wrinkled, soggy masses and trickles of water raced down their faces.

Buffy commandeered a white shirt of Angel's and some black sweatpants. Shivering, she clambered onto his bed and gathered his pillow against her. 'Do you have a heater?' She spoke through chattering teeth.

He shook his head. 'Sorry.'

'I think I need a towel,' she said, 'I'm turning your shirt see through.' Angel looked away politely. 'Do you want me to go get you one?' He offered. 'It's alright,' she said. 'I'll dry off soon.'

He sat down beside her and pulled her in beside hand brushed her breast and she breathed in quickly. 'Angel?' He didn't answer for a moment but twined his fingers through hers and rested both their hands on her leg.

'Angel?'

'Yes?' He shifted closer to her and she leaned towards him.

'Is there... some sort of law that I have to be... pure... or something?' she asked, struggling to cling to her meandering trail of thought.

He shook his head vigorously.

'Thank god,' she breathed and moved towards him. He kissed her, slowly at first and then like a desperate man clinging to the crumbling edge of a cliff, to the last thing that made him sane and real and wholly alive. She moved back and lay down on the bed in unspoken invitation. And although not unexpected, he was no less welcome of it.

She yielded to the weight of him, curling her legs around his waist. He discarded each item of the clothing she had so recently put on as if it were an unholy item shielding the truth of her. A solid wall formed around them, blocking out thoughts of how and why until they no longer cared the reasons they were so agonizingly in love, only that they were. Discussion served no purpose and held no value. Years later when they were old and grey and fading into the vague abyss of death, if all else failed and this was the only moment untainted by the many sins and consequent unhappiness's of this universe, they would have this moment to keep. Leaving things unsaid had never been so perfect.

Buffy groaned loudly and rolled away from Angel and onto her back. He sighed sleepily and sat up. 'Why'd you wake me?'

'I didn't,' she grumbled, 'I barely made a sound. It's not my fault you're an unnaturally light sleeper.'

He shrugged, 'Could be useful later.'

She propped herself up on her elbow, careful of the sheet covering her breasts. 'Why? Are we going to be ambushed?'

'You never know,' he commented casually. He snaked a hand under her naked body and rolled her on top of him. He kissed the tip of her nose gently and then her mouth. 'Morning, by the way.'

Buffy smiled dazedly and agreed, 'By the way.'

She dropped her head to his chest and listened to his heart thumping. It seemed to speed up the harder she presses her ear to his skin.

Angel pressed slow circles into her back with both palms.

Buffy rested her chin against the centre of his rib cage and looked up at him. 'Angel?'

'Mmm?'

'What time is it?'

Angel chuckled. 'You've got to work on your bedroom talk.'

She huffed, faking indignity. 'Just because we're in the bedroom doesn't mean I have to talk dirty.'

'Well, no,' he admitted, 'But let's face it; it wouldn't hurt.'

She swatted his arm and sat up, still clutching the sheet to her chest and looked around.

'Where are my clothes?'

He sat up, settling against the headboard. The sheet and quilt pooled around his waist and he shrugged as if hers was a positively absurd question. 'How should I know?'

'You took them off.' She blushed a furious shade of dark pink with the memory of it. 'I did.' He agreed thoughtfully. 'But it was dark. Also I threw them.'

Buffy closed her eyes slowly and shook her head a little. 'Why would you throw

them?'

'Didn't want you to put them back on,' he explained through a wide yawn.

'Why would I have put them back on?'

'Women do that.' He explained shortly. 'You're trying to right now.'

She gave an exasperated sigh. 'Fine. Turn around while I look for them.'

'No.'

She whined. 'Why not?'

'Don't want to.'

They glared at each other.

'Fine.' Buffy snapped eventually. 'But keep in mind, if you happen to develop a problem...' Her gaze wandered to his groin, 'We don't have time to take care of it.'

He grumbled but turned away from her, shucked off the sheet and pulled on his sweat pants. 'Evil mastermind,' she heard him mutter as she hunted for her clothes.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter VIII

Days drifted past. Few students attended school; exams were over and there was no longer a purpose to it. Buffy spent much of her time with Angel, insisting to Riley she was at home and to her parents that she was with Riley. Riley's shimmer didn't fade but nor did it grow clearer, much to Angel's frustration.

Buffys shoulder healed swiftly but the bruises which decorated Angel's neck grew only slightly fainter.

Angels parents were hardworking and though they obviously tried to be a family for Angel, he seemed quite opposed to having one. When they were home, he merely grunted at them. Buffy had seen them only twice since she'd been introduced to them and all she knew about them was that she was a big shot lawyer's secretary and he worked for an electrical company called EnergyStar.

They had been procrastinating in his basement for over two hours when Buffy decided they were both beginning to suffer from a Vitamin D deficiency due to all the time spent in his room and dragged him outside.

Angel showed her some vine covered lattice out the back and they used it to climb onto the roof, where the sun was strongest. They had only been enjoying the sun for an hour or so before the sky rumbled disagreeably, clouds marched decidedly across the sky and it began to rain heavily.

They scrambled back inside but by the time they flew through the front screen door they were already wet through. Their clothes clung to them in wrinkled, soggy masses and trickles of water raced down their faces.

Buffy commandeered a white shirt of Angel's and some black sweatpants. Shivering, she clambered onto his bed and gathered his pillow against her. 'Do you have a heater?' She spoke through chattering teeth.

He shook his head. 'Sorry.'

'I think I need a towel,' she said, 'I'm turning your shirt see through.'

Angel looked away politely. 'Do you want me to go get you one?' He offered. 'It's alright,' she said. 'I'll dry off soon.'

He sat down beside her and pulled her in beside him.

His hand brushed her breast and she breathed in quickly. 'Angel?'

He didn't answer for a moment but twined his fingers through hers and rested both their hands on her leg.

'Angel?'

'Yes?' He shifted closer to her and she leaned towards him. 'Is there... some sort of law that I have to be... pure... or something?' she asked, struggling to cling to her meandering trail of thought.

He shook his head vigorously.

'Thank god,' she breathed and moved towards him. He kissed her, slowly at first and then like a desperate man clinging to the crumbling edge of a cliff, to the last thing that made him sane and real and wholly alive. She moved back and lay down on the bed in unspoken invitation. And although not unexpected, he was no less welcome of it.

She yielded to the weight of him, curling her legs around his waist. He discarded each item of the clothing she had so recently put on as if it were an unholy item shielding the truth of her. A solid wall formed around them, blocking out thoughts of how and why until they no longer cared the reasons they were so agonizingly in love, only that they were. Discussion served no purpose and held no value. Years later when they were old and grey and fading into the vague abyss of death, if all else failed and this was the only moment untainted by the many sins and consequent unhappiness's of this universe, they would have this moment to keep.

Leaving things unsaid had never been so perfect.

Buffy groaned loudly and rolled away from Angel and onto her back. He sighed sleepily and sat up. 'Why'd you wake me?'

'I didn't,' she grumbled, 'I barely made a sound. It's not my fault you're an unnaturally light sleeper.'

He shrugged, 'Could be useful later.'

She propped herself up on her elbow, careful of the sheet covering her breasts. 'Why? Are we going to be ambushed?'

'You never know,' he commented casually. He snaked a hand under her naked body and rolled her on top of him. He kissed the tip of her nose gently and then her mouth. 'Morning, by the way.'

Buffy smiled dazedly and agreed, 'By the way.'

She dropped her head to his chest and listened to his heart thumping. It seemed to speed up the harder she presses her ear to his skin.

Angel pressed slow circles into her back with both palms.

Buffy rested her chin against the centre of his rib cage and looked up at him. 'Angel?'

'Mmm?' 'What time is it?'

Angel chuckled. 'You've got to work on your bedroom talk.'

She huffed, faking indignity. 'Just because we're in the bedroom doesn't mean I have to talk dirty.'

'Well, no,' he admitted, 'But let's face it; it wouldn't hurt.'

She swatted his arm and sat up, still clutching the sheet to her chest and looked around.

'Where are my clothes?'

He sat up, settling against the headboard. The sheet and quilt pooled around his waist and he shrugged as if hers was a positively absurd question. 'How should I know?'

'You took them off.' She blushed a furious shade of dark pink with the memory of it. 'I did.' He agreed thoughtfully. 'But it was dark. Also I threw them.'

Buffy closed her eyes slowly and shook her head a little. 'Why would you throw them?' 'Didn't want you to put them back on,' he explained through a wide yawn. 'Why would I have put them back on?'

'Women do that.' He explained shortly. 'You're trying to do it right now.'

She gave an exasperated sigh. 'Fine. Turn around while I look for them.'

'No.'

She whined. 'Why not?'

'Don't want to.'

They glared at each other.

'Fine.' Buffy snapped eventually. 'But keep in mind, if you happen to develop a problem...' Her gaze wandered to his groin, 'We don't have time to take care of it.' He grumbled but turned away from her, shucked off the sheet and pulled on his sweat pants.

'Evil mastermind,' she heard him mutter as she hunted for her clothes.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter IX

In light of recent events, Angel eventually insisted Buffy break up with Riley and she relented. There had been no changes in the shimmer and if she waited any longer and the person died, she would have to wait even longer after that. She called him on a Thursday afternoon and quite hastily invited herself to his house.

She arrived half an hour later, having borrowed her mothers car. Riley was reading on the porch. He grinned broadly as she pulled up.

'Hey,' she greeted.

He patted the space beside him on the porch steps. She sat awkwardly.

'How are you?'

'Fine,' she answered, 'Good. I actually needed to talk to you about something.' His face fell a little.

'I think,' she began slowly, before realising that in all the time she'd spent thinking about this moment, not once had she actually prepared. 'Maybe we should break up?'She said it as more of a question than a statement.

He clenched his jaw. 'Why?'

'Well we never that close anyway,' she said gently. 'And now that school's over, maybe-'

'Is it Angel?' He asked suddenly.

She opened and closed her mouth four or five times.

'I've seen the way he looks at you,' Riley said. 'The way you look at him.'

'I'm sorry.' Buffy whispered hoarsely. She could think of nothing else to say.

'Are you sleeping with him?'

Buffy looked up, taken aback. 'What?'

'You heard me,' Riley said coldly.

She didn't answer but she didn't need to.

'I still want to be friends,' she mumbled.

He swallowed hard and nodded.

The something-shadow behind him shook.

Riley began to say something about 'all for the best' but Buffy heard none of it. The shadow was trembling into clarity. It had an indistinct body and a hazy face. Its face and a small, thin nose, wide eyes and a petite, pointed chin.

It's face was her face.

'Buffy, are you okay?'

'What?' she muttered.

'I'm fine, I have to go.'

She hugged him before she left and then sped precariously to Angel's. She barely remembered to park the car before she flew from it through his front door.

'Angel!' she screamed. 'It's me, Angel.'

Angel was in his basement doing laundry. He threw a basket fall off his lap and into the wall, scrambled up the stairs and almost collided with Buffy coming down them. He grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her. She was crying and gasping, unable to speak. 'What?' he yelled, 'What is it?'

'I... the shadow,' she whimpered, 'It's me...'

'You're not making sense,' he snapped, 'Whose shadow?'

'Riley's shadow... it's me.'

He let her go and stumbled down two or three steps dazedly. He sank down only a few stairs from the landing.

She barely registered his reaction. She too, had slipped down the wall to rest on a stair.

'Are you, uh-' He asked roughly.

'I'm sure,' she interrupted.

'Maybe it means something different than what we thought it did...'

'You weren't there,' she mumbled distractedly.

'I don't think it means that you'll-'

'Maybe you got away,' she said hopefully.

'You're going to do something stupid,' Angel said decidedly. He looked up at her accusingly.

'Me? I'm not going to do anything- this would never be a problem if it weren't for you!

'What about me?'

'This is your fault!'

His eyebrows furrowed. 'Not at all.'

'You came here and you're just... you're a raging, maniacal bull in a very expensive china store.'

He looked confused, 'I don't... understand your metaphors.'

She glared at him and he softened.

The intense concern in his eyes burned her. 'What are you scared of?'

_You. Me. Death. Nascostas.'_She thought. 'Nothing.'

'Do you want to stay here until you calm down, or go home?' He asked tightly. He clenched his jaw.

'I want... I want...' she half sobbed. 'I want to stay with you...'

Angel nodded, took her hand and led her the rest of the way down the stairs. She cried with him until she was too exhausted to say anything more and they both slept till the dawn.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter X

The next morning Buffy woke to Angel rifling through the morning papers as if he was looking for gold in the type.

'What are you looking for?' She groaned sleepily.

'Obituaries.' He replied shortly.

'Morbid much?'

'I'm just looking for anything unusual.' Angel clarified.

'You might be shocked to know this does not decrease your morbidity.'

He rolled his eyes at her. 'Point made. You could help instead of making sarcastic comments at my expense.'

'Help with the obituaries? No thank you.' She glanced out the window. The sunlight was hovering weakly over the morning dew. 'Can we bond over something else?'

He didn't answer. He was eying the paper as though it might leap up and bite him. She frowned. 'What? Is it someone you know?'

He shook his head.

'Someone I know?' He shook his head again.

'Then what are you –'

'Mr. Richard Wilkins passed away on the thirtieth of November. He will be missed by his friends at Antonwood Nursing Home.'

Buffy's insides turned cold, her stomach flipped and for a moment, she thought she might heave. Several times she opened and closed her mouth soundlessly until; 'Was that when we were...?'

He nodded to her unasked question.

She did the mental calculations in her head. It was almost two weeks ago. She confirmed this with Angel and sat with him quietly as they wondered with intense hatred in which woman the vicious Immaculate Conception was growing, even now. Several hours later, when the horror had worn off enough for them to speak again, Buffy turned to face Angel.

'What if it's me?'

He scoffed. 'What? No. It couldn't – we were careful -'

'It doesn't matter,' she pressed on earnestly. 'You said yourself it was an immaculate conception. I could be a virgin and still have this thing inside of me.'

'It's not you,' he muttered. He stood and crossed the room.

She curled her legs up and wrapped her arms around herself. 'You don't know that.' He turned to face the wall, refusing to look at her.

'Angel, it makes sense. If they thought this through and they know who I am, why wouldn't they?'

Angel clenched and unclenched his fist furiously. 'Abel would stop them.'

'He can't stop everything.'

'NO!' Angel roared. He took several calming breaths and shook his head in mad denial. 'I said no.'

'Kay,' she conceded. 'We'll talk about it later then.'

'We won't.' He warned.

'The panic attack really isn't helping. I'm going to let it go because you never pointed that out when I was having mine so... I'm just going to go and I'll talk to you later.' He didn't answer but she saw his jaw clench.

She took several guarded steps towards him and cautiously kissed his cheek. She left him fuming in her wake.

She spent the day with her mother who had taken ill. Her father had gone to work and her bedridden mother seemed to need constant assistance.

Quite suddenly, however, her mother seemed to get stronger. By the end of the day there was no sign she had ever been sick at all. Buffy took the opportunity to locate Angel.

She found him, surrounded by rum, whisky and beer bottles on the floor of his basement where he was quite unconscious.

She heaved him onto his bed and left him there, groaning in his sleep. Buffy elbowed Angel between his shoulder blades. He groaned and rolled over. He then groaned and rolled back. Every time he moved, his brain thudded against his skull with a density that resounded for several minutes. Angel moaned faintly in response to the pain.

Buffy wasn't put off and instructed, 'Sit up.'

He remained motionless and displaying very little intent to become otherwise.

She wormed her hands under his body and hoisted him into a sitting position like a dead weight. 'Are you okay?' She inquired politely.

'I'm sorry.' His shoulders were slumped, his tone wretched.

'S'kay.'

'No, it's not,' he groaned. He threw himself backwards onto the bed and covered his face with his hands. 'I freaked out.'

She sat beside him and crossed her legs. 'Big deal. I can't even count how many times I've hyperventilated since this started.'

'Yeah, but you're-'

'A girl?' She raised her eyebrows warningly.

He chuckled. 'I was going to say hallucinating and seeing dead people.'

She half-smiled. 'Oh.'

He grinned. 'I promise not to freak out again.'

'That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.' She said.

'I panicked over a discussion.' He moaned.

'I must have done that about fifty times.'

'I yelled at you.'

She laughed. 'I'm borderline schizophrenic and you think I can't handle you yelling?' 'You shouldn't have to.' He muttered.

'And you probably shouldn't have to deal with the hysterical mess I am when ever absolutely anything happens.'

'I don't mind – '

'Exactly.' He half smiled. 'Are we okay then?'

She leaned in and kissed him firmly on the lips. 'I think we'll live.'


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter XI

Buffy pressed her ear the ground harder. She had never heard her parents bicker, let alone argue. Her mother was screaming, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice.

'How should I know, Hank? I'm just as confused as you are!'

'I highly doubt that,' snapped Hank. 'Who is he?'

'There isn't anyone, I swear! I told you I don't know what it is.'

'Well I'd rather not hang around and wait for it to come out and introduce itself, if you don't mind.' Hank shouted furiously.

'So that's it? You're just giving up?'

'Don't you dare pin this on me. I'm not the whore who's pregnant with another man's baby.' Buffy moaned softly to herself and sat up. She scrawled into her bed and lay there, hysterical horror taking her over.

She heard someone stampeding up the stairs and throwing things on the other side of the house. She blocked it all out.

But someone banged on her door with a violence which shook her whole room. 'Buffy,' roared Hank. 'Open the door.'

She leapt off the bed and unlocked the door. She must have looked frightened because Hank was quite suddenly apologetic.

'Sorry, dear.' He said. 'Do you mind if I come in?'

She nodded mutely and they both sat on the bed.

Hank gently took her hand. 'I suppose you heard all that?'

She nodded again.

'I don't want to pressure you but I'd very much like you to come with me.'

Buffy swallowed hard.

Hanks glasses slipped down his sweaty nose. He was balding, only fine wisps of grey hair covering his head. He was a tall, thin man. He had a kindly face but he spoke so softly you rarely knew what he was saying.

Buffy could hear him now. These were all the things she noticed about him but it occurred to her in the closed, up sheltered space of that moment, that she didn't know him. She didn't know what he liked or what he disliked, whether or not he enjoyed his job. She didn't know what hobbies he had or what places he'd been and though she did and she knew he did, she couldn't quite recall the last time they'd told each other they loved one another. But in that moment, when he looked at her so hopefully, she wanted nothing more than to run away with him. To leave behind her mother and Riley and even Angel. As much as she loved him it would be nothing short of blissful to go back to being just Buffy, plain and boring but safe and consistent.

Hank waited patiently, with something close to hope in his brown eyes. Speechlessly, she shook her head.

The light in his eyes went out but he made no reaction other than a short, stiff nod. 'I'll call you when I get settled somewhere,' he promised.

But she knew he wouldn't. The way he saw she had made her choice and would have to live with it.

Hank said nothing more, but rose to leave.

'Dad?' She whispered.

He stopped in the doorway but didn't face her.

'I love you.'

'I love you too, dear.'

And then he was gone. -

Hours later, numb from shock, Buffy wandered downstairs. Her mother was in the laundry. She was humming.

'Mum?' Buffy inquired.

'Yes, dear?' The woman answered.

'Are you okay?'

'Quite, well thankyou. I was thinking perhaps you might need a psychiatrist. Maybe a therapist?' She said all this distantly, distractedly, as though it wasn't all that important.

'Therapy?' Buffy repeated dully.

She nodded and turned back to the laundry as if nothing out of the ordinary had been said. 'That's not...'

'There have been a lot of changes, it's just standard procedure. I want you to adjust accordingly.'

Buffy furrowed her brow and chewed on her tongue like she was trying to bite it off. For some reason, it hurt her more than usual today that her mother spoke of her like a broken car that needed to be fixed. Eventually she said, 'I don't know that I believe in psychology exactly.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, I believe it exists, I just don't think of it as a precise branch of science,' she said slowly, carefully analysing each word before she let it slip out of her mouth and into the open air, where it couldn't be retrieved.

'How so?' Joyce questioned.

'Well it's based on the idea that essentially, everyone is the same inside.'

'We are.'

Buffy's face fell, but she said nothing. What could she say?

After a moment or two of silence, her mother turned back to her again. 'If you don't want to attend the sessions, that's fine but please don't wander around thinking your different to anyone else, people will start to think you're conceited.'

Buffy stared as if she was seeing her mother for the first time. Her mouth formed the shape of words she couldn't say and after a while she dropped her eyes. Joyce wandered away, noticing no significance in her daughter's silence.

Buffy sat, shell shocked to her very core before gathering herself and stepping out of the laundry. 'You don't think I'm special?'

Joyce turned, a sympathetic expression set on her plain features. 'Oh, darling. We all think we're special – it's one of our great and terrible flaws.'

'I have to talk to you.' She announced in a tone which left very little for discussion. 'It feels like hippos are using my head as a trampoline.'

She smiled wryly. 'I do love your metaphors. Do you want coffee?'

He rose from the bed so gingerly it took him a full minute and answered hoarsely. 'God, yes.'

'Don't use the Lord's name in vain.'

'I'm allowed at this time of the morning.' He grumbled.

He followed her into the kitchenette. He winced as she began to clang around in search of coffee.

'Left,' he advised. 'What's wrong?'

At that moment, a horrifying thought seemed to occur to him. 'You're not pregnant are you?'

She didn't turn around. 'No.' The boiler settled down and she poured it into two large black mugs. She passed him one. 'My mum is.'

He had the cup mere centremeters from his lips but lowered it gravely.

'My dad said they haven't been having... you know... so he's leaving.'

'Does your mum have a... boyfriend or something?' His voice verged on desperate.

'She says no.' Buffy's tone was clipped and distant. 'She could be lying.'

'Yeah.' He drained half his coffee at once, ignoring the painful heat as it spiralled down his throat. The absurdity of their situation was not lost on Buffy. They were in his kitchen, drinking terrible coffee and quite calmly discussing her mother's impending doom.

Buffy had decided quite firmly not to cry. She hated crying almost as much as she hated the entire situation. As far as she was concerned, it was a truly disgusting aspect of the human capabilities and she would do her hardest to make sure she had no part of it.

'It might not be,' Buffy began. She had spent the larger part of the night imbedding herself in denial. 'And even if it is, it's not necessarily-'

'Her heart is black.'

Buffy steeled herself. 'Metaphorically or literally?'

His jaw clenched and he shrugged grimly, 'Both.'

I looked away. She spoke carefully, keeping her voice cautiously even, 'But it's just a baby.' 'It's in the form of a baby but-'

'It's evil?' She gritted my teeth and avoided his eyes. Her head felt heavy and her limbs were numb with shock. 'Do you want me to kill it?' Her voice sounded shamefully dead pan, as if she'd already been defeated.

'No. You have to-' he stopped and reached for her hand. He gripped tightly with his own as if he thought it would make it easier. On who, she don't know. 'It would be better if we could stopped it being born altogether.'

His mouth moved around words he didn't give voice to and she stared, glassy eyed. 'Would that... would that even work?'

He ran a hand through his hair fretfully and shook his head. 'I don't know,' he muttered, more to himself than her.

Buffy stood abruptly. The coffee table shifted in her hurry and the china they had been using slid to the floor. She watched without regret as they smashed on the shiny oak flooring. 'I'm going now.' She swung her bag over her shoulder and was almost out the door by the time Angel called her back.

'I'm sorry.' She turned and stared, without taking in the walls which wrapped around her. 'Me too.' And then she was gone.

It hurt Angel to hurt her. It was painful in an acute way he'd never known before this started. But since Buffy had left, Angel had thought for hours. He'd gone for long, fruitless walks, hoping something he saw would trigger a flash and give him an ulterior solution, another way out.

Angel was already sick of 'the need to know basis' he and Buffy was on. He wanted out, but it was no longer an option; Nascostas had made sure of that. Every time they looked the other way Nascostas or Navistos or god-only-knows-what would tie another string across the room, another obstacle to step over or duck under. It was pointless to fight it, but when the end result was so clear cut, so set in stone... it seemed that fighting on either side would end them all.

Angel knew it was the right decision but he would hate the world forever because he had to make it. He had never wanted to be the one to make those decisions.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter XII

Buffy steeled herself. Her mother was reading on the couch in the lounge room. Buffy was hiding in the shadows of the hall.

'Buffy?' Joyce called.

Buffy flinched. She wasn't ready.

'Come in, dear.'

Cautiously, reluctantly, Buffy crept into the room.

'Well, what are you waiting for? Come sit by your mother.'

Buffy could barely breathe, but she sat. Instinctively, she was careful not to touch her. 'Did you want something dear?'

She shook her head. Her heart hammered against her ribs in a punishing rhythm. 'Just wanted to see how you were?'

'Excellent.'

Buffy braced herself. She would feel much better, she reasoned with herself, once she had said her piece. 'Did you ever consider... abortion?' She eventually asked furtively. Her mother was strangely un-phased. 'Of course not.'

'Maybe you should?' Buffy bit out. She sounded unsure and thoroughly unconvincing.

'No.'

'Well, you could get dad back that way.'

'I don't want him. Besides, the damage has been done. I regret nothing.'

'You're not as young as you used to be.' Her voice was filled with self-loathing as she almost whispered, 'There might be something wrong with it.'

Joyce's head snapped up and she smirked with cruel enjoyment, 'I wouldn't say _wrong _necessarily.' Her eyes were wild with patronizing contempt. She stepped towards Buffy, who backed away until she felt the banister at the top of the stairs pressing against the small of her back.

Buffy swallowed, looking terrified. 'I don't know what you-'

'Lies!' The woman spat, 'You think to lie to me? I, who have walked beside Cain in the black realm. I who have delved deeper and darker into the majicks than any of the Ancients?'

'No, I don't-'

But Joyce almost spat at her._'The glory of the Infernal sacrament now violated The Lord of the black realm will be ever living and Freed from the accursed dungeon in which I am entrapped The din of death will be deafening.' _

She moved closer to Buffy who tried to step back and stumbled as the landing dropped into stairs. She stepped until her mouth was at the shell of Buffy's ear. Her smile could be heard as she whispered,'

'_The desolation of the holy will abhor Abel And the wrath of Cain will be almighty.'_

Joyce seized Buffy's shoulders and pushed her back but she ducked and shoved the middle of her mother's back until she crashed down the stairs, her body sickeningly limp.

The ambulance came. Buffy sat with them but wouldn't touch Joyce. Joyce was unresponsive. Buffy didn't tell them she was pregnant.

They worked on her for over an hour and only moments after arriving at St. Paul Public Hospital, she awoke. She informed the staff, quite calmly that she was expecting and that while she was there, she would like an ultrasound.

Buffy was balled up in the corner. Joyce ignored her.

The ultrasound was unsuccessful. The woman pressed it harder and moved it around the full girth of her stomach, but for all intents and purposes, Joyce's womb was a deep black hole. But somewhere inside, a heart beat.

Buffy caught a bus home. She didn't say goodbye.

Angel called minutes after she arrived home. 'Did you try?'

She said nothing but he could hear her harsh breathing.

He waited before he began again. 'We have to leave.'

'No.' Her tone was decisive; she wouldn't leave until she absolutely had to. Somewhere, deep inside herself, she was already convincing herself he was wrong. It was subtle and she was only dimly aware she was doing it but the reality of it made her feel so incredibly, painfully alone.

'We can't stay.' He insisted.

'I am. You can go.'

'Now you're just being unreasonable.'

'I'm not.' Argued Buffy. 'You go. I'm staying.'

'Fine, we'll stay.' He snapped.

She grunted in reply.

'I'm coming over.'

'I don't want you to.' She snapped.

'I don't care,' he countered. 'I'll see you in ten.'

'Fine,' she bit out. 'But I'm not talking to you.'

He didn't bother answering but clicked the phone shut.

Buffy threw the phone at the wall. It cracked through the wall and left its indent there after it slid down onto the floorboards.

It began to rain through the roof in the sort of miserable, dripping way that followed a hot day. The unsettled sky outside was darkening. The houses dark corners were blacker than ever but Buffy didn't turn on the light, didn't move from where she was standing, still staring like a woman possessed at the deep indent her phone had left. Waiting, writhing inside her mother was death.

She was going to die.

But it wouldn't matter; Angel and her mother would already be dead. Her father was gone and she was left feeling like the parasite inside her mother was gnawing at her own insides. Bit by bit, it ate at her most vital parts until she was nothing but dust and bone and a shell of the lives she didn't save, the life she could have had and the simple moment she realised the fight was meaningless.

Hell itself had brought forth her assassin and wormed its way into someone she loved. Angel let himself in, like he always did and found her like that. Her eyes were glazed over and staring and at first he thought perhaps she was entirely comatose. Her exhausted body swayed thoughtlessly. One hand gripped her upper arm in a vice like grip and tiny trickles of blood swam down her arms from the place her nail sliced through her soft, vulnerable skin. 'Buffy-?' He stepped towards her slowly, carefully, as if he was worried she might bolt. Her eyes focused on him but she didn't move, didn't cease her constant swaying.

'Are you-'

She shook her head so unhurriedly it barely moved.

He picked her hand up and led her to the end of the bed. He sat down and by default, she too, sat. He waited for her to speak but she stared mutely.

'You know, my dad used to tell me about this old legend in Norway...' He waited for her to make any sign she could hear him but she said nothing. He continued anyway. 'That in the coldest of all winters, a beautiful flower bloomed from the ice. The local villagers saw it as a miracle and worshiped it as a sign from their god.'

'Sounds like they were expecting a lot from one tiny little flower.' Buffy whispered hoarsely.

'They didn't expect anything from it. It just gave them hope, that even in their darkest hour, God had never completely abandoned them.'

She sobbed quietly. A single salty tear ran down her cheek and dripped off her chin like a leaky tap. 'That's a really stupid story.'

'Yeah, well,' Angel wrapped both arms around her and dragged her towards him, tucking her head under his chin. 'I just made it up.'

She chuckled through her tears.

'We'll be okay,' Angel promised, but he wasn't certain who he was speaking to.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter XIII

Days and weeks and so painfully swiftly, months passed.

The child with Joyce Summers grew and with its size, grew its evil. Quite content to nestle silently within her womb until the day it was free.

Buffy remained in her home for a week. When she awoke for the third morning in a row to find Joyce staring, eyes black with violent vehemence, she left. She hadn't spoken to her since but she knew exactly how long Joyce had stayed at Angel's. They told his parents that her mother had kicked her out and that they were moving out as soon as possible. They both found jobs and Buffy transferred all the money out of her trust fund, into a separate bank account before Joyce could take it.

Angel stepped around her carefully and sometimes she would be so angry she shook with it and she refused to even look at him.

He waited patiently and eventually, she calmed. She began to speak to him again and though they had always shared a bed, finally she turned to him for comfort. She saw Riley on his days off. He was working hard to earn enough money for travelling. He was going with a boy name Forrest; they would begin in America and make their way to Europe. She tried not to feel jealous when he talked about. She smiled and nodded and pretended the fact that he had his whole future ahead of him didn't cut her like a knife. His family treated her much the same as they ever had. Only Cordelia, Riley's twenty-two year old sister held with any animosity and even this was masked by the overwhelming urge to be courteous, of which she'd been raised to believe was the staple of all that was good and eight months later and on one of Riley's days off, Buffy took Angel's car and drove the 15 kilometres out to Delmont.

Their yorkie, Quella was usually yapping at the sound of cars but the house was quiet when she arrived.

She knocked on the door once, hard. 'Hello? Riley?' There was no answer.

'Riley,' she called again and hit the carved timber harder than ever.

She shrugged to herself and twisted the doorknob. Silence greeted her with cold, unfriendly arms. Every step she took shook the house with its tiny noise. Her hands were numb and clammy, her body trembled.

'Riley?' she tried again in a small, plaintive voice. The suspense of the silence was breaking her down. She wanted to leave but she wanted even more heart wrenchingly desperately to stay and find the Finn family, see them laughing and smiling and ascertain that although she did not, Riley still had his life stretched out before him like a yellow brick road of possibilities. The hallway was empty. The kitchen and lounge room were empty. The dining room was not. They were so still.

So quiet.

_Sempiterna Umquam_

Written in blood. Finn blood. Riley's blood.

Dead. Torn, ripped apart. So still.

Numb. _Dead. _Such a little word, such a big word. It wouldn't get into her head. It floated around her mind, just out of reach.

She melted to her knees and crawled towards them.

Quella was ripped open. She could see his heart. So still.

Riley's parents, Marianne and Henry Finn were still bleeding. The carpet swallowed it up and passed it around. It used to be blue.

Cordelia's jaw had been opened up. Her stomach and chest had been cut apart. Riley had a hole in his stomach the whole way through.

She didn't think, didn't know anything. She lay down beside Riley. His eyes were open. She was on her back. Their blood soaked through her clothes, her hair, smeared onto her face.

She held Riley's hand. He was cold like winter.

They were all dead and it was so wrong to stay with them but she couldn't stand to leave them here. A childish, sectioned off part of her brain was waiting impatiently for them to sit up.

She slept, never letting go of Riley's hand. She knew it was time. Knew she should have called Angel and they should have left hours ago but she was tired with the kind of density that weighed every part of her down. She was an anchor and she was sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

When she awoke it was past ten. Angel was pulling at her arm frantically.

'I have to stay,' she mumbled incoherently.

He shook his head. His eyes were wide with horror. The blood that covered her had already travelled to him and it tarnished his clean face. She tried to wipe it away but her hand was covered in it too.

'Get up,' he whispered roughly. 'Your mum's in hospital.'

Buffy gingerly stood to her feet. Oddly, she felt little surprise.

'The car's packed,' Angel explained to Buffy as they walked towards the hall. Buffy took one last glance at the Finn family. 'We'll drive for a few days and then we can settle somewhere for a week or so.'

'What?' She stopped walking. 'No. I want to see my mum first.'

He tugged her hand but she held fast. 'Buffy, I don't even know if she's still-' 'I don't care,' she insisted. 'We have to go.'

He sighed. 'Fine. But we're not going near... that. And we better clean up.'

Swiftly, they stole into the bathroom, where still fully clothed they washed the blood away under the hot spray.

They didn't speak in the car. Buffy remained fully alert, afraid Angel would go back on his word but he parked in one of the back streets behind St. Pauls. They bent double past the front office and then the nurses' station. The maternity ward was almost deserted.

There were only five rooms in use. Four were filled with exhausted but exuberant mothers, but the fifth held only a screaming child. The staff must have left in a hurry, or rather not wanted to go near it, because it lay alone in a plastic crib labelled _Girl: Drusilla Summers_. Buffy swallowed hard. The bed beside it was used but not empty. Blood soaked the sheets and mattress.

Angel tried to steer Buffy away but she stepped closer. The child stopped screaming.

'Maybe she's not.' She whispered.

'Don't start.'

'Just look at her. She doesn't look bad.' Buffy said.

Angel spoke through clenched teeth. 'Bad things rarely do.'

'Can you just look at her?'

'I don't want to go near it, Buffy.' He said in a warning tone.

She gulped and looked down at what he couldn't see. She reached a hand out.

'Don't touch it.' He said.

'I won't touch bare skin.'

He stepped forward to knock her hand out of the way but a tiny, fleshy fist flung up and clenched around her pointer finger. The moment it touched her, Buffy threw her head back and screamed in an ill-matched pain for what should have been the child's strength.

I stepped forward and looked into the crib. The baby's face was set, her tiny chest still, unmoved by breath. Her iron grip around Buffy's finger was released and Buffy fell back, whimpering. Angel pulled her off the ground with her free hand though she held her other to herself and judging by her expression, the urge to scream was barely restrained.

The things eyes flew open. Where pupils on a human child would be, her eyes were a wicked, all-encompassing black. She hissed and an unearthly violence roared in her voice. Out of her tiny mouth came the voice a demon and she whispered in a sudden, swift way.

'_The desolation of the holy will abhor Abel_,' her rosebud mouth turned up in a malicious smirk, '_And the wrath of Cain will be almighty_.'

Angel stood horror-stuck for several moments before recovering and remembering Buffy beside him. She was still making quiet noises of pain and already there was a tiny hand-shaped mark blackening her finger.

He clenched his jaw. They knew nothing about cursed scars but he was willing to bet everything he had that common medicine would have no effect.

'We have to go,' he whispered, eying the cot warily. It's eyes had closed but it was still listening. 'We'll try and do something for your hand later but we have to get out of here. Can you try and ignore it?'

She bit her lip but managed to gasp, 'Yes.'

He took her other hand pulled her out of the room. She stumbled willingly behind him but she stared after the baby long after it was out of sight.


	15. Chapter 15

Epilogue

In many ways, it was like any other day - at least in the beginning.

For a long time, Buffy Summers had begun every day identical to the last. Neat, tidy and organised she woke every morning at exactly seven-thirty, showered, dressed in the pre-prepared outfit she had laid out the night before and made love to a certain young man named Angel O'Connor.

It was not, of course, like any other day.

The Finn family massacre occurred that day, on the 13th of August. It was described by the polices as 'the brutal killing of a happy family in a supposedly safe community.' To Buffy Summers, however, it was the end of innocence.

The 13th of August was also the very first birthday of one Drusilla Buffy Summers. It was reported in the local paper that her mother, Joyce Deidre Summers, died during child birth due to complications. Many hopeful families came to adopt the child but they all left alone. Drusilla was not wanted. Eventually, she was placed into foster care.

On this same day, both Angel O'Connor and Buffy Summers vanished. A nurse at St. Pauls hospital claimed to have seen them sprinting from the maternity ward. They were wanted for questioning by the Sunnydale City Police, but under the children's tragic circumstances, it was generally believed they had run away together.

Evidently, many of the rumours surrounding the strange occurrences of the 13th of August were true. It was true that Angel O'Connor had stolen the car on loan to him by his foster parents. True also, that Buffy had spent almost four years involved with Riley Finn, the youngest killed in the massacre. It was also accurate to say that Drusilla was an eerie, if not intelligent child and that Joyce Summers had spent the majority of her pregnancy locked in her house, refusing to answer both the door and the phone and that on certain nights, neighbours complained of hearing anguished screaming.

The truth of Angel and Buffy's disappearance was quite simple however. They had, in fact, not disappeared at all. They had merely become Marianne and Joseph Hudson, young back packers from California.

For Buffy and Angel the day ended in a car.

Angel drove for almost eight hours. They didn't speak; for a long time it seemed Buffy was no longer capable of speech. Eventually however, the need for answers won out and she asked about the Finns.

'It was ritual killing,' he explained. 'I forgot-'

'The _Eternally Reborn_,' Buffy interrupted. 'It was written on the wall in Latin.'

He nodded. 'I'm sorry,' he said slowly. 'I should have remembered-'

'It wouldn't have made a difference,' Buffy said bitterly. 'It's not like Navistos have given us anything to fight with.'

'But I'm sorry about Riley,' he continued, 'And his family. I didn't really know him... but even when I hated him he still seemed like a decent guy.

Buffy had nothing to say to that. 'Did my mum do it?'

'Probably,' he answered dully.

'Can... that thing, can it track us?'

'Not if we're far enough away. Nascostas has limited power on Earth. It will be easier for them; technically you share blood.'

She swallowed loudly and was quiet again.

'Buffy-' he began.

'Don't.'

'I just-'

'Please,' her voice broke and she stared ever more earnestly at the tar road disappearing beneath their tyres, 'Just don't.'

He swallowed hard and risked a glance at her. She was sitting up rigidly straight, her mouth set. Lost for words and not knowing what to do, he took her hand. 'We'll be ok.'

'You don't know that.' She countered bleakly.

He nodded slowly. 'I guess not. But...' he thought for a moment. Nothing in the world could make this better, so he continued, rather helplessly, 'I love you.'

She looked up at him. Her mouth opened and closed several times before she smiled through the tears still trickling down her cheeks. 'That's actually better.'

The tires rolled smoothly over the bitumen, helping them leave behind unimaginable horrors. There wasn't another car for miles; this was both a comfort and a burden. They were unaccompanied in a place like purgatory, with no escape possible and yet, as night became dawn and dawn was swallowed by day, neither felt alone.


End file.
